The weekend in Baños

At 6:00 on Friday afternoon, we piled into Enrique’s bus for the journey to Baños.  We arrived to our hostel around 11 pm, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then rested up for the next day. 

On Saturday, we rented bikes for $5 and set off for the mountains.  There is only one road that leads through the mountains and has a lot of activities along the way.  Most of the ride was downhill and the scenery was very pretty.  At our first stop, we hiked uphill to see the first waterfall.  Along the way, we passed a fishfarm that was rigged up using the power from the waterfall.  We continued biking until we reached “the canopy”, which was a structure built up 30 – 40 ft on one side of the cliff that dropped down to the river.  On the other side was another waterfall and people could zipline across.  We took a cart-like thing that went across the ravine on a zipline but it was slow and steady and designed for people to take pictures from and enjoy the scenery.  At the next stop, I went on a zipline that was 1 km (0.6 mi) long across the river.  It was different from other ziplining because I laid horizontally with my chest to the ground and feet strapped in.  I was instructed to put my hands behind my back until I reached the yellow flag, at which point, I opened my arms out like superman.  The zipline was so fast that I had tears streaming down my face.  I really liked it. 

Jumping off the bridge!

At the next stop, we crossed a bridge that you could jump off of, and this is called puenting.  So naturally, I decided to do it.  The bridge was 35 meters (~100 ft) above the river.  I was strapped in and instructed to jump headfirst with my arms out wide.  So I did.  And then I swung back and forth under the bridge until they threw me rope to pull me back to land. 

We finally made it to the last waterfall, which required another hike that took about 20 minutes.  This waterfall was the biggest and most beautiful of all because it was surrounded by cliffs and extremely powerful.  Next to the waterfall was a fortress-type area where people could stand and take pictures.  The bottom of the fortress was wet from all of the water spraying back up into the air.  There was also a tunnel along the cliff that led to another fortress that let you touch the waterfall; you could almost stand behind it.  But in order to get through the tunnel you literally had to squat down low and kind of crab-walk it through to the opening.

We hiked back up to where we had parked our bikes after the 22 km (~13 mi) bikeride through the mountians.  We ate lunch at a little café restaurant.  I had spaghetti with pasta sauce, tuna, mushrooms, green peppers, onion, shredded cheese and some sort of herb.  It was very delicious.  (ps Mom I explicitly analyzed the dish so that we can make it at homeJ).

Later that evening, we took a “volcano tour.”  We drove up another mountain on a party bus, which was wooden and painted all sorts of colors, with bright lights flashing and American pop music playing.  There were families and couples on the bus too.  At the top of the mountain, was a small camp-like area with small shops to buy food.  We went over to a gazebo, which overlooked the city of Baños.  I like cities much better when they are far away and all lit up in the night.  Banos is actually quite small, I counted 7 x 10 blocks.  But it was very cute tucked away in the valley.  That may be my favorite view so far.

On Sunday, we did “extreme ziplining” at another location.  The tour consisted of a zipline, which was similar to the one I did before.  Then we walked along a wobbly suspension bridge.  After that, we rock climbed to a higher point on the cliff to reach another zipline.  There were rungs in the side of the mountain to help you climb and a bright orange line that your carribeaners are clipped to.  The coolest part was that we had to move our own carribeaners at each point where the line was bolted to the rock, while balancing on the cliff.  Then, we zipped back across the river.

Love the bridge jumping!

After that, we went to the bigger bridge, for another round of puenting.  This bridge was 100 meters (~300 ft) above the river.  So naturally, I decided to jump off of this one too.  It was so much fun.

We grabbed a bite for lunch and shopped a little bit.  I also stopped by a little ice cream shop and ate a choco banana.  They freeze a banana on a stick, then dip it in chocolate and add some sprinkles.  What a great treat for 50 cents!

The bus ride home was a little bit shorter and we were all exhausted.  This week I am back to volunteering at the school in the mornings and still taking classes in the afternoon.  It is a lot of work!  But in a good way, because I feel like I am experiencing everyday life in Quito and learning a lot of Spanish.  When I come home I think that I am going to start watching movies in Spanish to help my learning curve!